From DEBRA@oln.comlink.apc.orgThu Sep 7 10:29:27 1995 Date: Tue, 05 Sep 1995 15:34:00 +0100 From: Debra Guzman Reply to: beijing-conf@tristram.edc.org To: beijing-conf@tristram.edc.org Subject: WCW: SG: BOUTROS-GHALI ADDRESS TO WOMENS CONF [The following text is in the "ISO-8859-1" character set] [Your display is set for the "US-ASCII" character set] [Some characters may be displayed incorrectly] ## author : unic@peg.pegasus.oz.au ## date : 04.09.95 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- This information is provided by the United Nations Information Centre in Sydney for Australia, New Zealand and the South Pacific. For further information, please call 283 1144. EMBARGOED UNTIL 2 am NEW YORK TIME ON MONDAY, 4 SEPTEMBER 1995 CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY Boutros Boutros-Ghali ADDRESS TO THE FOURTH WORLD CONFERENCE ON WOMEN Beijing, 4 September 1995 Madam President, Mrs. Mongella, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen, My first words are words of welcome: welcome to all of you. I wish you every success in your deliberations and in your work. Secondly, words of thanks: on behalf of the international community, and of all of us present today, I thank the Chinese Government and people for their generous and gracious hospitality. It is both fitting, and significant, that China is host to this historic global Conference. China is, of course, a permanent member of the Security Council. China takes part, therefore, in the work of the United Nations for the maintenance of international peace and security. By welcoming us all here this week, China is making clear its intention to play its full part in the international community across the entire range of its most important work. I see this Conference, therefore, as cementing a new era in the relationship between China and the United Nations. This is an important milestone on the road to the future. China has the resources and manpower to contribute significantly to global progress. China has the ability to take an active and enthusiastic part in the Organization's work toward sustainable development, particularly in Africa. Without the full and active support and participation of China, the United Nations cannot act as a truly universal forum. China's decision to be the host for this major event in modern life is a symbol of its future place in the world, and that of all the nations of Asia within the international community. Madame President, I ask to convey to all the Chinese people our message of thanks and appreciation. Thanks are also due to the delegations of Member States. This Conference is the product of many years of hard preparatory work. I know what a great effort you have undertaken to make this Conference a success. And thanks are due to the organizers of this Conference. In particular, we thank the Secretary-General of the Fourth World Conference on Women, Gertrude Mongella, and her team. * * * * * * This global conference is unique. It brings a new universality, and therefore a new legitimacy, to the deliberations of the international community. Gathered here is a deep and rich representation of governments, of women's groups, of the organizations of civil society. There is evident here, in all its diversity and vibrancy, the new partnership in international life which has been forged between governmental and non-governmental organizations. We see here the new legitimacy of the organizations of civil society as actors on the international scene. The effectiveness of our work -- both here, and in the future -- will depend to a considerable extent on our willingness to be open and receptive to ideas and suggestions coming from those organizations. This is an historic gathering: not only because of its membership and participation, but also because of the subject of our discussions. Securing the equality of women and men, in law and in fact, is the great political project of the twentieth century. A crucial role in the realization of that project has been entrusted to the United Nations. We are meeting to take that great enterprise forward into the twenty-first century and beyond: to consolidate the legal advances, to build on the political understandings, and to commit ourselves to action. * * * * * * As the millennium approaches, we look back over a century of unprecedented social and political change on our planet. No country, no people, has been untouched by its great upheavals. Some have already concluded that the twentieth century was a dark age in the history of humanity. No-one can deny that its wars, its struggles, were characterized by great violence and enormous human suffering. But out of that suffering came also a new spirit: a spirit of hope, and a resolve that there should be change. The founding of the United Nations, fifty years ago, was one achievement of that new spirit. Then, the world looked back: to seek the lessons to be learned, and the mistakes to be avoided, after the cataclysm of world war. And the world looked forward -- not simply to re-construct a shattered international community, but to build a new and better one. The recognition of the dignity and worth of women, and of the essential contribution of women, on an equal basis with men, to life in all its aspects, was to be an essential element of that better world. Thus States made, in the United Nations Charter, a clear commitment to the rights of women: " ... to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women ... " This was more than a statement of high ideals about the world of the future. It was a commitment to ensure that men and women have and enjoy the same rights. And -- unlike any other commitment made in the Charter -- this was a commitment which could be measured. And it pointed the way forward in other ways, too. That commitment was inserted in the Charter because women's non-governmental organizations worked with government representatives to put it there. The then First Lady -- Eleanor Roosevelt -- of the United States was instrumental in that process. Since its very founding, the United Nations has actively encouraged Member States to honour their commitment. In the early years, from 1945 to 1962, the United Nations concentrated on securing equality for women under the law. In 1946, the General Assembly established the Commission on Human Rights and the Commission on the Status of Women. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted in 1948. In these ways, the United Nations sought to build on the legal basis for the equality of women set forth in the Charter. In a second phase, from 1963 to 1975, the international community began to recognize the importance of development in achieving the advancement of women. The focus of the Organization's work included the economic and social realities of women's daily lives. In 1967, the Declaration on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women was adopted. In 1975 the first global conference on the status of women was convened in Mexico City. It proclaimed 1975 as International Women's Year. The Conference led to the elucidation of a three-part theme -- equality, development and peace. This became the basis of the Organization's work in the upcoming years, and of our work today. Between 1976 and 1985, the United Nations observed the Decade for Women. The Decade was the third phase of United Nations work for women. This period brought the crucial new recognition of women as active agents of, and contributors to, the development process. 1979 was a landmark year. The United Nations General Assembly adopted, that year, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women. It was the first international legal instrument to define discrimination against women. It was, in other words, an international bill of human rights for women. But it also stressed the importance of action, including action in the fields of employment and education, to ensure women's progress in fact as well as in law. The Decade for Women's major conferences -- Copenhagen in 1980, Nairobi in 1985 -- offered a forum in which women's organizations had a voice in shaping the work of the United Nations. The Decade also brought agreement on the need for practical measures to improve women's lives. The adoption of the Nairobi Forward-Looking Strategies for the Advancement of Women to the Year 2000 was another milestone in the advancement of women. They included guidelines for national measures to promote women's participation in efforts to promote peace, and education for peace. They singled out for special attention the need for measures to help women in special situations of distress. Over the past decade, we have seen a fourth phase of United Nations activity for women. A continuum of global conferences has worked to define the new global agenda. These conferences have made it clear that no progress is possible without the full and equal participation of women and men: in promoting peace, in safeguarding the environment, in securing sustainable development, in human rights, in population, in health, in education, in government, in the home, and in civil society. The 1990 World Summit for Children established goals for health, education and nutrition for women and children. The role of women in safeguarding the environment, and in promoting sustainable development, was recognized at the United Nations Conference on the Environment and Sustainable Development, held at Rio de Janeiro. Women were seen as having a central role in implementing Agenda 21. The Vienna World Conference on Human Rights reaffirmed the universality of human rights. It was understood that women should exercise the same rights as men on the basis of equality. The Cairo International Conference on Population and Development recognized the central role of women in population and development. Its consensus language reflected a concept of reproductive rights that is firmly based on human rights instruments. It also set forth the linkage between women's empowerment and development. The World Summit for Social Development, meeting at Copenhagen in 1995, adopted a Declaration and Programme of Action. One of its central principles was the full integration and participation of women in spurring social development and eradicating poverty. * * * * * * Today, we celebrate fifty years of unceasing effort, spearheaded by the United Nations, to advance the cause of women. One of the themes of our conference is equality. Equality before the law is being achieved in many countries. But equality in fact remains an elusive goal in all countries. Equality of dignity is far from being achieved, with discrimination on the basis of gender still widespread. Real and concrete steps are still required -- to ensure equality of opportunity in education, and equality of access to health systems, to jobs, and to political power. Women work longer hours, for less pay and in lower status jobs, than men in almost every country. Seventy per cent of the 1.3 billion people living in poverty in the world are women. Women and their dependent children form the majority of the 23 million refugees and 26 million internally displaced persons in the world. When the Charter was signed, no State had elected a woman as head of state or government. Since then, a total of twenty-four women have been elected to head states or governments. But there is far to go before we have equality between women and men in senior government posts. In 1994, there were no women ministers in twenty-five States. Overall, only 5.7 per cent of the world's cabinet ministers were women. In no country were women in the majority as elected members of parliament. There were exceptions: in Sweden there was parity between men and women in ministerial posts. The Caribbean is the only region where more than 20 per cent of senior government officials are women. In the United Nations itself, progress is being made. As Secretary-General, I have appointed women to head several UN programmes, bringing the total number of women executive heads to five. The General Assembly took an historic step recently when it elected the first woman judge to the International Court of Justice. I have given clear instructions that the goals of the Charter for gender equality in the United Nations itself should be strictly followed. I have approved action plans within the Organization to foster a gender-sensitive working environment and to ensure that the Organization addresses the gender aspects in all of its work. The role of women in peace is another theme of this conference. In United Nations peace missions, women remain a largely untapped resource. Missions should be designed to take account of the extraordinary potential of women in crisis situations. Violence against women seems to be increasing. It should receive the unanimous and firm condemnation of the entire international community. National studies in ten countries estimate that between seventeen per cent and thirty-eight per cent of women have been physically assaulted by a partner. An estimated 100 million girls suffer genital mutilation. More women are today suffering directly from the effects of war and conflict than ever before in history. There is a deplorable trend towards the organized humiliation of women, including the crime of mass rape. We will press for international legal action against those who perpetrate organized violence against women in time of conflict. * * * * * And another theme of this conference is development. The international community has recognized the great potential of women as agents of consensus and peaceful change. The challenge is to harness the energy, ideas and skills of women, not only in the re-building of formerly war-torn societies, but also in promoting conditions of economic and social development generally. The burden of rural women in developing countries is well-known. The United Nations, in Geneva in 1992 convened the first international conference on rural women and development. We should be able to say of our development efforts, that not only is development necessary for rural women, but what is good for rural women is good for development. This perception has grown and become widely understood. Women -- their lives, their roles, their aspirations -- are the key to development in every dimension. Equality, peace and development must reach every woman on earth. When the rights and hopes of women in all these fields are advanced, so will all human society come to benefit. * * * * * * This Conference is a milestone in the history of United Nations work for women. It is the culmination of a chain of global conferences. It embraces the issues covered by all of them. This Conference is a call to action. The Platform is comprehensive, and challenging. It takes an integrated approach to a wide range of issues. It cuts across all of the concerns -- economic, social, cultural, and political -- of the United Nations system. As we go forward, the partnership between government and civil society will be crucial. But the Platform will not become reality unless that partnership now extends into the implementation stage. Neither government decrees nor the isolated acts of small groups of citizens will be enough to make the Platform work. Both must work hand in hand. The partnership must be mobilized at all levels: the family, the local community, and the State. Government can garner resources. Civil society can reach down to engage all members of society. The movement's theme -- "think globally, act locally" -- is more relevant than ever. There is a growing awareness that attitudes as well as behaviour -- both of individuals and of institutions -- must change to take account of the real rights and real needs of women. Let us not forget ; the progress we make is measurable and it will be measured. Future generations will hold us accountable. They will look for concrete signs that Beijing, in 1995, was followed by real action. Let us not disappoint them. Let us not disappoint ourselves. Together we must follow our words with our deeds. We must take up the cause of the world's women. Thank you